The film industry is full of talent. Surprisingly, much of this talent comes in the form of child actors who can give their senior colleagues a run for their money with their mind-blowing performances. These young stars have managed to stay in our heart and mind, even if it was long back that they were last seen on the big screen. While some of them continued to act in movies and gave brilliant performances one after another, others just disappeared despite making a hit debut in the industry. And then there are some who made a great comeback as an adult, years later.
Here are ten such child actors who we wish we could see more of in Bollywood because they took our hearts with their cute smiles and splendid performances.
Parzan Dastur
This sardar kid won our hearts in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai with his star-counting antics and solo dialogue, “tussi ja rahe ho, tussi na jao”. Thereafter, he was seen only in a handful of movies with blink-and-you-miss-it appearances. In 2009, at the age of 17, he bagged his first lead role in Piyush Jha’s, Sikandar. We wish we could have seen more of this Dhara commercial star while he was still a kid.
Kinshuk Vaidya
After creating magic with his pencil in Shaka Laka Boom Boom, Kinshuk Vaidya disappeared from the small screen for almost a decade. When he made a comeback in 2016 with a soap opera, he was already an adult in his late 20s. Oh, how we missed the clever, adventurous and full of life Sanju all these years!
Juanna Sanghvi
We were smitten by the cute smile and twinkling eyes of little Angel in Heyy Babyy, weren’t we? The character was played by one-year-old Juanna Sanghvi who made her audiences smile every time she smiled. It has been 12 years since Juanna made her debut in Bollywood and no matter how badly we wanted, we never got to see her again.
Jhanak Shukla
Jhanak Shukla, who played the role of the blue-eyed human-robot in the Indian remake of Small Wonder, had a very short stint as an actor. At the age of 7, she gave two of the most remarkable performances of her life- as Karishma in Karishma Kaa Karishma and as Preity Zinta’s step-sister Jia in Kal Ho Naa Ho. Jhanak soon felt that Bollywood was taking too much of her time. So she quit acting to concentrate on her studies.
Adil Rizvi
Adil Rizvi gave a heartfelt performance as little Sonu in Akele Hum Akele Tum back in the 90s. The chemistry shared by Amir and Adil in the movie brought us to tears several times throughout the movie. After his heart-touching performance, Adil was hardly seen on the screen again. Now that he is all grown up, we are expecting him to make his big Bollywood debut as an adult soon!
Pooja Ruparel
She played the role of Kajol’s bubbly sister Chutki in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and the wild child Munna in King Uncle. We’re yet to see Pooja Ruparel on the big screen again.
Athit Naik
Shiv, the nerdy brother of Preity Zinta in Kal Ho Naa Ho has a more remarkable cinematography career than acting career. 29-years-old Athit has shot over 300 films so far but he was hardly seen on screen after 2004 when he starred in Aabra Ka Daabra.
Ayesha Kapur
Ayesha Kapur made a mindblowing entry in Bollywood with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Black in which she starred as a young Rani Mukerji. At the age of 9, she became the youngest person to win the Zee Cine Awards and the second youngest (after Darsheel Safary) to win the Filmfare. After Black, Ayesha was seen again in 2009 in Sikandar but we haven’t seen much of her since then.
Jibraan Khan
He stole our hearts when he lip-synced to the national anthem in his British-Indian accent in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. However, SRK’s on-screen son couldn’t make it big in the industry despite his cute looks. Rumour has it that now Jibraan is assisting Ayan Mukerji in Karan Johar’s Brahmastra.
Utkarsh Sharma
After starring as Sunny Deol and Amisha Patel’s son Charanjeet in the blockbuster Gadar: Ek Prem Katha, child actor Utkarsh Sharma was next seen on the big screen 18 years later in Genius. Now that the little boy is all grown up, we expect to see more of him in promising roles.
We cannot get enough of these child actors who wooed us with their outstanding performances and adorable looks. Though we haven’t seen much of them in the recent past, we will still continue to feel nostalgic every time we read about them or spot them making it big in the industry as an adult.
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